ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 34, 25 January 1864, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

WK PO KOT HOIaT> OUIISEIaVES responsible TOR THK OPINIONS EXPUKSSKI) 1»Y OUK co v ii es ro j?© EaVt s. (To the Editor of the Invercargill Times.) Sui, — The Provincial Council is summoned to meet 'Hi tlie 10th of 7r*Vbninry.- v Why this delat ? Dr. Menzies is at this moment without. an Executive, liis last supporter h s left him, — disgusted at last. -Tile members of Oouncil have unanimously agreed not to talie office unless 'lie will promise to act constitutionally, lie cannot form an Executive; he does not care to try. Ho takes high ground. He considers hiuislf entitled to act without an Executive; he is doing it. and ia quite prepared to take the consequences- He accepts any amount ot" responsibility nnd blame, provided ' he is uilowetl to play the King of Prusbia— which respectable, monarch we may aptly compare with the Doctor, if it is allowable, as the Itoman poet said, to compare great things with small. We presume Dr. Menzies requires all the time till the lOth to prepare his ihv.uicial .statement; the .working of his inintl— like that of the Roads and Bridges Department — being very slow indeed. Perhaps the delay may be caused" by a dislike to faco the council ; perhaps by an' intentional endeavour to keep back the Province,— for who knows whether Dr. Menzies has really the . welfare of the Province. at heart? Who knows the heart of the Great Unapproachable ? Now there are urgent; reasons .why the Council should moi-fc at once. ' 1. The Appropriation Bill has been disallowed, and what public money is being spent, is therefore being spent illegally. 2. Hoads and all other public works are ar. v stand still, at least one cannot s.»e anything doing to the roads. 3. Tlie summer is passing away quickly. B,'fo:-e the new Appropriation Bill becomes law, March will have come. V» r hat time then will it bo to commence road-makini'? ft. The government of the Province is being carriail on by one man, and how ? Not in a businesslike way, —not for the interests of the people, nor with the advice and consent of their representatives, but abitrarily and in direct disregard of the inhabitants of Southland, and their wishps, — carried on, in short, according to tiie d'etates of Dr. Menzie's own unfounded conceit and the freedom of his own will. Oh I that like Adam he would fall (rom the estate wherein he was created, and let some other man reign in his stead. Many other reasons there are for the Council meeting afc once, which space compels me to pais over. = Of those named, the two principal are, tho illegal expenditure, and the dictatorship of the Doctor', these two are mixed up together. If a good man and true were Superintendent, with an Executive whose advice he took and relied on, one could rest easy (or a little ; hut when we see a. person whose knowledge of business is extremely limited — whose life has been so secluded that he has never rubbed sides with the world and cannot know it— who is in finance a mere child — who, during the two years ho has been ac the head of the Government, hasbeen a drag to the progress of the Province—who let slip the only opportunity Southland had of becoming the first province'of New Z.-aland, at the outbreak of the Lake Gold-fields in 1862 — who in March following, in his address to the Council, complacently informed it that the tide which, taken atthe flood, leads'on to fortune, had co-t.e at last, when, in" fact, it was fast ebbinoaway — who believes he can act legally without an ' Executive in spito cf the Provincial Government Ordinance, to which lie himself was a. party — who is prepared to act without an Executive, i.oc feeling under any moral, obligation by reason of the rule just mentioned — who looks' upou an Eiecutive as upper servants whose advice he may ask but need not take— and wbo interferes with the working of every department, to the hindrance of the public serviceWhen we see him coolly managing our affairs without consulting our wishes — when we see financial difficulties approaching, and feel keenly the utter incompetency of this man to meet them,, we think ifc high time the Provincial Council stiould meet, and what course Dr. Menzies will take when.it does meet,, we are at a loss to know. The Council must be firm. To succumb, would be to establish the Doctor as sole Dictator. Dr. Menzies has now plainly shown, fche cloven hoofhas shown tyis intention of being supreme 7 and unontrolled, an 1 he must now be shown thafc ho is wrong —that even if his legal status be what he asserts, liis behaviour is not tlie thing for a man in his position and in a free country where every-thin;*; is supposed to be done constitutionally. . Itis the duty of the members of Council, as representatives of the people of the Province, to see that the people are represented in the Government of the Province, ns well as at the law making. -Under- representative institutions, the people, through their representatives, should not only legislate, but govern. Di- Menzie's reason for his present conduct one-, cannot imagine. Perlia- s he fancies- he ;is a supc-r-ior being, just as . some peculiar- family feature will crop out in .after generations, and make a man look "aw hi.' like " the portrait of his grandtnqt-her.v The- old idea 'of patriarchial despotism, now obsolete, which prevailed in the Highlands of S.otland, when as yet the inhabitants cf that part of the world were just about as civilised as the Maories of the present day, has j cropped out in the moral development .of " our . natural chfef," and made him self-v illed, hau lity, and imperious. Perhaps he believes in the divine right of Superintendents, which may account — as all divine-right kings^lespise their- pc pie — forhis superciliousness. But I am fired of conjecturi g. Since New Zealand became, a colony, no Province has risen from rac-re insignificance to the foremost rank with such quickness and eclat as Southland ; and had Dr. Menzies only allowed himself to be carried on with the current, instead of dragging back, he would have had the credit- of having made Southland what it is, and have taken a position '.-is bne of the first men in New Zealand — and all this by merely the simple exercise of a little common sense.' What can he gain by setting his j- fellow colonist* at defiance, arid telling them he will-dp as he likes, as if he were not one of themselves — Botbing but ill-will. I have often with sorrow thought, over this disposition of Dr Menzies; for in : many respects he is a man to like ; and wou'd he only do as every other Suner» intendent doe*, allow the dominant party iri Council— no matt r '"what its 'politics be— to govern, be would make a very fair Superintendent, and sit on the throne all hid life. If he wishes goodwill, esteem and popularity— -if he hus the

good of tho Province and its inhabitants at heart B • let him play the king, or else — give up tho gan*e|BY I mean, of course, the constitutional king — Ctyfl; the King of Prussia. BI am, Sir, yours, &c, B

(To the Editor qf tlie Invercargill Times. ) Sir, — Your able article of Wednesday laat, o 6 the responsibility of the Superintendent has attr« t , -ted- my attention. After carefully ; going into th, matter from . the passing of the C-nistitution Act and the introduction of the Representativft-#br*iJ of Government into New Zealand, down to tha election of Dr. Menzies under the New Province! Act, you come to the conclusion that " taking every thin st into consideration, we are of opinio;, that Superintuhdents elected under the New Pro, vinces Act, if responsible -to- any one, are directly responsible to the Provincial Council;" .So far jqj are correct, but yoii abruptly stop at the election of Superintendent. What of tbe Provincial Gfo. vernment Ordinance ? Does is it not alter Or re. call this responsibility ? 'Passed subsequently to the election of the Superintendent, by him ancl the Council, it provides that the government of Pro. vince shall becarried on by t-e Superintendent, with the advice and consent of an Executivo chosen fr'*m the representatives of the people. Ii no. this taking back the responsibility ? Is not thij equivalent to vestm* the government of the Province in the Provincial Council? Tno Executive is formed by the leading men of tbe majority in the Council. How then can the Superintendent be responsible to " them for what he does under their advice, and with their consent? The Southland News oa Thursday, argues that because Dr. Menzies hai chosen to act so irregularly, therefore he has power to do as he likes, und adds, that there can be ao such thing as a responsible Executive, because hitherto the war of doing these things has been informal. Good, arguments both. I should like to hear what the News thinks of the Provincial Council Ordinance? It keeps- si'enee on that; it tries hard to show that the Superintendent alone is responsible for everything to— nobody — : for the evident purpose of backing up Dr. Menzies in doing as he likes* The short and long of nil that has been said and written on the subject i. that, after the Provincial Government Ordinance became law, a Superintendent if he act with the ß advice and consent of ah Executive, is not respon-B sible. - If he-act without, or against its 'advice and B consent lie acts illegally, and is responsible to th.B law of the country. I'he legal view ofthe question B upon which much stress has been laid, seems to fl me tobe of far less consequence than the question, fl whether the Doctor is acting constitutionally. Into fl this, hoivever, I have not time to enter at present, B but may in a future letter. 8 .lours truly, fl' BOXA FiOBB- S